how often do you sharpen?

[shaggystu]

just been putting a nice edge back on my new EDC folder (replaced my old opinel number 8 with a new opinel number 8, i like them!) and i got to wondering how long people expect their blades to keep an edge for? obviously it's very dependent on a million variable factors so i've had thunk, and this is the best i can come up with.

scenario: you're carving a spoon (surprise surprise!) out of green ash, starting with a blank measuring, say, 8x2x2" and ending up with a functional finished product. i suppose you've removed about half, or maybe a little bit more, of the original material in the process. supposing you started off with a "properly" sharp blade, then how blunt would you expect your blade to be after this? would it have needed sharpening to get to this point? would it need sharpening now? could you do another spoon? etc. etc.

to answer my own question, i carved the above mentioned spoon a little while ago using a carbon steel opinel number 10, the edge had only been used for some light kitchen work since being sharpened so was still razor sharp when i started. i got to the "functional spoon" stage without sharpening and a couple of strokes on a nail buffer got it back to razor sharp.

hope this all makes sense to people, it is kinda late and the insomnia isn't doing me many favours at the moment!

look forward to your responses

stuart.

p.s. my apologies to the spoon haters amongst us, could be tricky for you to respond to this, i just thought that spoon carving would be the easiest for most people to relate to.

 

[leon-1]

Stuart, I have knives which are used on a regular basis for all sorts of things including shaping of spoons and the like. 2 of said sharp objects have had to be sharpened recently, but that is after nearly 4 months.

Most of the time my knives are maintained on a strop so do not require the use of stones, but when I have to, I use a 1000 / 6000 grit waterstone before moving onto a leather belt and now a couple of starkie sharps with different grades of polishing compound.

Also most of my knives are convex ground and this seems to hold an edge a fair bit longer than my flat ground blades especially if they have had prolonged heavy usage.

 

[tenbears10]

In my experience the length of time between sharpening is directly related to how long it takes to produce a sharp edge. As you said Stu the opinel takes seconds to get razor sharp but as a result the edge doesn't last ages. Other metals will take a lot longer to produce the edge but it will last longer as well.

I almost prefer something that needs to be touched up little and often. I think it is good to strop after every time you use a knife that way it doesn't have the chance to lose it's edge.

Bill

 

[TheViking]

When it gets dull...... Depends on how much I use it!

 

[rapidboy]

My EDC gets a little strop each evening as i wait for the PC to boot up.
Just a habit i got into and it means the blade very rarely gets dull.
The starkie sits beside the monitor and the knife gets just a few strokes but it makes all the difference having a shaving sharp blade every time.
This attention means my 01 blades have never shown any sign of corrosion.

 

[JakeR]

I think it does depend on the knife though. I know a BRKT is famous for the edge retention. My (ex) woodlore didnt need too much sharpening, the starkie sorted that out. And both my BRKT are kept scary sharp on the starkie (of course).

 

[DUCky]

And both my BRKT are kept scary sharp on the starkie (of course).

Can I get a whooOOOOOOO CONVEX EDGE!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!

I've got a micro and a Highland special, waiting for a blaze orange and a golden dessert ironwood Northstar, so I am a bit exited :roll:

Which BRK&T do you have Jake?

Cheers,

Lennart

 

[RovingArcher]

I touch mine with a strop as I use them and inspect them every couple of weeks and touch them up if needed after cleaning. The only dull knives in our house are the ones I just bought at a yard sale for half a dollar. They won't be dull long.

 

[Realgar]

I sharpen my opinel several times a week - a habit of using on fruit means that the edge dulls a bit quick ( 'specialy after oranges ), it takes less than a minute to sharpen it up again using good old wet & dry sandpaper. Any time I'm off fishing it also get sharpened as it's my only means of cutting the line, it's also used for digging splinters and hooks out of hands, gutting fish etc etc

I can't think why but noone in the lab will eat anything my knife's been used on.

 

[shaggystu]

thanks for the replies guys, i was kinda hoping for some sort of specifics tho, i should probably have made myself a little clearer i suppose, sorry! what i'm really curious about is how different knives compare to each other when doing the same kind of task, i know how my knives measure up to one another, i was just wondering whether there was masses of difference in performance between other peoples knifes. the knives i use mainly are my opinels and my fallkiven F1 and i'd say that the fallkniven would do somewhere round about 8-10 times the amount of work that the opinel would for the same amount of sharpening to be required. i was hoping people might be able to come up with some similar comparisons. i know that this isn't a very scientific approach but it's the best i could come up with!

thanks

stuart

 

[jason01]

No definitive answer Stu, the Opinels have thinner blades/thinner behind the edge than your F1 and they are made of fairly soft steel, hence they are easy to sharpen but dont stay sharp long. I like my Opinels but I only have to look at the edge and they need sharpening! There are so many different variations of steel type, heat treatment/temper, grind, thickness and type of use, each one will perform slightly differently. You could write a thesis on it and still not cover every variable! But the basic principles hold true for them all.

A thick convex blade in decent carbon steel properly tempered I would expect to retain a razor edge even after a couple of days hard but careful use on seasoned timber, my opinel's would be next to useless after 20 minutes carving something like seasoned Yew so I dont bother trying to use them for that type of job, theyre great for light work cutting lines or slicing veg's!

Jason

thanks for the replies guys, i was kinda hoping for some sort of specifics tho, i should probably have made myself a little clearer i suppose, sorry! what i'm really curious about is how different knives compare to each other when doing the same kind of task, i know how my knives measure up to one another, i was just wondering whether there was masses of difference in performance between other peoples knifes. the knives i use mainly are my opinels and my fallkiven F1 and i'd say that the fallkniven would do somewhere round about 8-10 times the amount of work that the opinel would for the same amount of sharpening to be required. i was hoping people might be able to come up with some similar comparisons. i know that this isn't a very scientific approach but it's the best i could come up with!

thanks

stuart